A lot of us, recently, have been thinking about Big Brother. With the reveal of NSA surveillance policies raising a lot of citizens’ private eyebrows, something interesting is happening. Not only is surveillance the topic-du-jour for comedy—trending on Twitter were titles for surveillance state rewrites of children’s books like Charlotte’s Web-Cam and To Think I Surveilled It On Mulberry Street—but book sellers have seen a reportedly huge spike in sales of George Orwell’s classic "1984."

On Amazon, sales of the dystopian novel jumped 6,021 percent in 24 hours on Tuesday. But while Orwell’s tale might be the most iconic, we’ve been producing stories of runaway surveillance, dystopian futures and fanatical social control for a century. And lately, we can’t stop thinking about them.

So if the state of our state has you looking over our shoulder, this probably won’t help your nerves: a list of the best and creepiest movies about government intrusion and control.

Enemy of the State

It’s Will Smith vs—guess who?—the NSA in this thriller about the assassination of a Congressman. In a power-gone-to-their-heads worst case scenario, the Congressman gets whacked by rogue NSA members for vocally opposing a bill that would expand the surveillance powers of the NSA. The tagline for the film warns: “It’s not paranoia if they’re really after you.”

A lot of us, recently, have been thinking about Big Brother. With the reveal of NSA surveillance policies raising a lot of citizens’ private eyebrows, something interesting is happening. Not only is ... more

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The Matrix

A computer programmer turned hacker at night starts to work with a terrorist.
His new friend shows him the real world, where most of humanity has been captured by machines. The machines live off of the energy and body heat, the Matrix, in the 1999 movie.

It’s still the quintessential story of surveillance. Made once already in 1956, in an adaptation loosely based on the original novel, 1984’s Nineteen Eighty-Four brought the story to screen in a more faithful, more unsettling rendition of the novel that gave us the term “Big Brother.”

1984 It’s still the quintessential story of surveillance.... Photo-4781112.64527 - seattlepi.com

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Three Days of the
Condor

In another story of corruption among the corrupt with “how far is too far?” themes, Robert Redford plays a secret agent for the CIA whose office is attacked by even secreter agents. He quickly guesses he knows too much but doesn’t know who to trust. It’s a story with a strong “they’re everywhere” feeling. Even his post man turns out to be a spy that tries to kill him.

Three Days of the
Condor In another story of corruption among... Photo-4780712.64527 - seattlepi.com

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Minority Report

In the not too distant future, police don’t see everything you do—they see what you are about to do. Specifically, Tom Cruise does. But the foolproof system is fooled, and Cruise finds himself a pawn in a game of preemptive surveillance and punishment. Extra creepy points go to this one for Cruise having to literally swap eyes with a cadaver in order to escape the state.

It’s not the government that’s watching Jim Carrey, it’s his fellow citizens. In this story of paranoia and pursuit, Carrey tries to shake off the attention of the TV audience that’s followed his whole life. It’s not about a police state, but it’s still a story about getting the creeps and having to fight against an organized network of eyes and ears.

The Truman Show It’s not the government that’s watching Jim... Photo-4780699.64527 - seattlepi.com

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Paycheck

Big Brother is, once again, not quite the bad guy in "Paycheck." This time it’s Big Business. And Ben Affleck’s paranoia comes not only from who is watching him (his boss), but what kind of things he got up to before his memory was erased by his boss.

Gene Hackman is the paranoid surveillance expert in the 1974 Coppola movie "The Conversation". When starting to suspect a couple he is set to spy on will be murdered he has a crises. Here his character Harry Caul sees the 'clean' toilet suddenly backing up with bloody evidence.

Taking place in future Britain, the dystopian Stanley Kubrick movie "A Clockwork Orange" deals with the question of authorities trying to force people to reform. The main character, Alex, engages in an experiment where he is being "reprogramed."

The fight against a totalitarian society in "V for Vendetta" has made the movie an emblem for political groups from libertarians to anarchists for promoting their beliefs. A freedom fighter, V, rescues a girl from the secret police and finds his ally in her.

A couple rebels against a society where people are controlled by drugs, sex is forbidden and everything is directed by a computer.

THX 1138

A couple rebels against a society where people are controlled by drugs, sex is forbidden and everything is directed by a computer.

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Fahrenheit 451

Books are banned in the isolated society of movie "Fahrenheit 451," which is based on the dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury. A fire fighter, whose duty it is to burn all books, instead starts to read confiscated books risking his life.

A favorite element in Big Brother movies is the evil multinational corporation. In 1974 thriller "The Parallax View" a news reporter investigates a senator's assassin when stumbling across a conspiracy.